Laduma

What has Matt been up to at his physio sessions this year?

Here are some of the activities he enjoyed in his session this week.

Bouncing on a ball

Building on Matt's interest in kicking balls, Pam introduced Matt to this new activity of dribbling a ball around a figure of eight. She gave hime a chance to get a feel for it, but did not force him to stay longer than he was interested.

And then to the kitchen for Matt's favourite - ice cream. Lots of licking. And an opportunity for Pam to work on his back.

And some stretching in between the licking

Look how well I am sitting, and licking on my own.

Then back to the new dribbling activity - and Matt really goes for it because now he is familiar with the game.

Laduma Matt Laduma*

*Laduma means "for it thunders" in isiZulu and is shouted in soccer when a goal is scored!

Someone capable of love

"My studies in Aristotle helped me to order my thoughts, and to distinguish what really matters from what is less important. Aristotle loved all that is human. He made me pay attention not primarily to ideas but to reality and experience. But I differ from Aristotle over certain aspects of anthropology, particularly over his definition of the human being as a 'rational animal', a definition which excludes people with intellectual disabilities from humanity.
I would sooner define the human being as 'someone capable of love'. "


quote from Jean Vanier, Our Journey Home

Matt is a fan of the Soccer World Cup

On Friday the Soccer World Cup 2010 was officially opened here in South Africa. Matt got into the spirit of it!

What's Matt been up to? Part 2

Matt has been practicing his ball skills - he absolutely loves balls of all shapes and sizes. Everytime he sees sport on TV he runs to get the appropriate ball - soccer, cricket or rugby ball and he kind of imitates what he sees the sports men doing.

With the Soccer World Cup here in South Africa this month Matt is getting lots of exposure to the art of kicking and dribbling soccer balls. Big soccer balls have proved too easy for him to dribble so now he is practicing with the more challenging smaller balls.

What's Matt been up to?

Matt has been such a tonic for me during our turbulent season. I haven't been that active in taking photos as usual, but here are a few showing what he has been up to the last month or so.

Matt enjoys mixing things that are in a bowl, as well as the taste-testing (don't we all). At his music and movement class they have been doing a song with actions about making cakes, so Matt's cooking skills have been reinforced there too. I regularly make mini muffins for Matt's snack time. We don't have a sign for muffins so we call them "baby cakes" - using the signs that Matt knows.

Some days are messier than others. But always entertaining!

For fun and for exposure to textures we play with rice, pasta, and beans. Matt loves digging his hands in the various mixtures; hiding and finding small toys and again more mixing and stirring. It is a great activity for the rainy days.

Stay tuned for an update on Matt's ball skill development.